omen

From Latin ōmen (“foreboding, omen”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊmən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊmən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊmən

omen (plural omens)

1. Something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury.

   The ghost's appearance was an ill omen.

   A rise in imports might be an omen of economic recovery.

   The egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen.

   • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, chapter 10, in Madame Bovary, Part 3:

     Day broke. He saw three black hens asleep in a tree. He shuddered, horrified at this omen. Then he promised the Holy Virgin three chasubles for the church, and that he would go barefooted from the cemetery at Bertaux to the chapel of Vassonville.

2. A thing of prophetic significance.

   A sign of ill omen.

• Adjectives often applied to "omen": good, ill, bad, auspicious, evil, favorable, happy, lucky. The terms for a positive omen aren't used much negatively, and it's considered oxymoronic by some to use it positively.

• augury, auspice, forecast, foreshadowing, foretoken, forewarning, harbinger, herald, hint, indication, oracle, portent, prediction, presage, prophecy, sign, signal, token, warning; danger sign, straw in the wind, (hand)writing on the wall; see also Thesaurus:omen

• ominous
• abomination

omen (third-person singular simple present omens, present participle omening, simple past and past participle omened)

1. (transitive) To be an omen of.
2. (intransitive) To divine or predict from omens.

• prognosticate, betoken, forecast, foretell, portend, foreshadow, bode, augur, prefigure, predict, auspicate, presage

• augury
• foreboding
• portend
• portent
• stars are aligned

• omen in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• omen in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• Emon, Mone, NEMO, Nome, meno-, meon, mone, nemo, nome

Uncertain, perhaps from Latin ōmen (“omen”), but the semantic shift is problematic. If it's not a borrowing, from something akin to Proto-Basque *oben.[1]

• IPA^(key): /omen/, [o̞.mẽ̞n]

omen inan

1. fame, renown

omen

1. reportedly, apparently, I think

   Eguraldia hobetu omen da. ― It seems like the weather has improved.

In Basque, yes/no questions require a modal particle. The most common one is al, which introduces no additional meaning. For tentative questions, ote is used. The related particle omen indicates hearsay, but it's not used to form direct questions. All these particles are placed immediately before (auxiliary) verb forms.

• "omen" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], euskaltzaindia.eus
• “omen” in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], euskaltzaindia.eus

From Old Latin osmen, of uncertain ultimate origin. Ancient authors derived it from ōs (“mouth”). Recently it was by some referred to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to see, perceive”) (whence audiō)[1] or to the source of Ancient Greek οἴομαι (oíomai, “I think, believe, suppose”)[2].

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoː.men/, [ˈoːmɛn]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.men/, [ˈɔːmen]

ōmen n (genitive ōminis); third declension

1. An object or occurrence believed to portend or predict a future event, circumstance, situation, or state of affairs: an omen, a sign, a harbinger, a portent, a token

   Synonym: ōrāculum

   • 45 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione ; 1.46.103:

     Atque ego exempla ominum nota proferam: L. Paulus consuliterum, cum ei bellum ut cum rege Perse gereret obtigisset, ut ea ipsa die domum ad vesperum rediit, filiolam suam Tertiam, quae tum erat admodum parva, osculans animum advertit tristiculam. 'Quid est', inquit, 'mea Tertia? quid tristis es?' 'Mi pater', inquit, 'Persa periit.' Tum ille artius puellam conplexus: 'Accipio', inquit, 'mea filia, omen. Erat autem mortuus catellus eo nomine. L. Flaccum, flaminem Martialem, ego audivi, cum diceret Caeciliam Metelli, cum vellet sororis suae filiam in matrimonium conlocare, exisse in quoddam sacellum ominis capiendi causa, quod fieri more veterum solebat. Cum virgo staret et Caecilia in sella sederet neque diu ulla vox exstitisset, puellam defatigatam petisse a matertera, ut sibi concederet, paulisper ut in eius sella requiesceret; illam autem dixisse: 'Vero, mea puella, tibi concedo meas sedes.' Quod omen res consecuta est; ipsa enim brevi mortua est, virgo autem nupsit, cui Caecilia nupta fuerat. Haec posse contemni vel etiam rideri praeclare intellego, sed id ipsum est deos non putare, quae ab iis significantur, contemnere.

     Now let me give some well-known examples of omens: When Lucius Paulus was consul the second time, and had been chosen to wage war against King Perses, upon returning home on the evening of the day on which he had been appointed, he noticed, as he kissed his little daughter Tertia (at that time a very small child), that she was rather sad. 'What is the matter, Tertia, my dear? Why are you sad?' 'Oh! father, Persa is dead.' Paulus clasped the child in a closer embrace and said, 'Daughter, I accept that as an sign. Now, 'Persa' was the name of a little puppy that had died. I heard Lucius Flaccus,​ the high priest of Mars, relate the following story: Metellus' daughter, Caecilia, who was desirous of arranging a marriage for her sister's daughter, went, according to the ancient custom, to a small chapel to receive an omen. A long time passed while the maiden stood and Caecilia was seated on a chair without any word being spoken. Finally, the former grew weary and said to her aunt: 'Let me sit awhile on your chair.' 'Certainly, my child,' said Caecilia, 'you may have my place.' And this was a sign of what came to pass, for in a short time Caecilia died and the girl married her aunt's husband. I realize perfectly well that these omens may be lightly regarded and even be laughed at, but to make light of signs sent by the gods is nothing less than to disbelieve in the existence of the gods.

   • ~101 CE, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, Saturae ; Satura 4, lines 123-125:

     non cedit Veiiento, sed ut fanaticus oestro / percussus, Bellona, tuo diuinat et "ingens / omen habes" inquit "magni clarique triumphi..."

     Veiientus yields not, but as one inspired by the maddening / influence of the goddess Bellona, prophesies. "A mighty / token this you possess" he says "of some great and illustrious triumph..."

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

• ōminor
• ōminōsus
• nōmen est ōmen

• praenūntiō

• Dutch: omen
• English: omen
• German: Omen
• Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: omen
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: omen

• “omen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “omen”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• omen in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• omen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to wish prosperity to an undertaking: aliquid optimis ominibus prosequi (vid. sect. VI. 11., note Prosequi...)
    
  • and may heaven avert the omen! heaven preserve us from this: quod di immortales omen avertant! (Phil. 44. 11)
    
  • to accept as a happy omen: omen accipere (opp. improbare)
    
  • to interpret something as an omen: accipere, vertere aliquid in omen
    
  • with favourable omens: faustis ominibus
    
  • an evil omen; presage of ill: omen infaustum, triste
    
• “omen”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

From Latin omen.

omen n (definite singular omenet, indefinite plural omen or omener or omina, definite plural omena or omenene or ominaene)

1. an omen

• “omen” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin omen.

omen n (definite singular omenet, indefinite plural omen, definite plural omena)

1. an omen

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

omen m

1. definite singular of om

• “omen” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

omen m

1. Alternative form of ome

Learned borrowing from Latin ōmen, from Old Latin osmen. First attested in 1585, originally as a neuter noun.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.mɛn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔmɛn
• Syllabification: o‧men

omen m inan

1. (literary) omen, foreboding

   Synonyms: przepowiednia, wróżba, zapowiedź

   dobry omen ― good omen

   zły omen ― bad/ill omen

• omen in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• omen in Polish dictionaries at PWN